Salvation's Only A Clip Away
by anonymousauthor213
Summary: A division is sent into the city to reinforce an already faltering defense.  Will they make it?  Follow along the footsteps of Private Sean Calso as he fights countless battles to defend the city from the clutches of the locust horde.
1. Chapter 1

A New Fan fiction: Salvation's only a magazine away

By: AnonymousAuthor213

Chapter 1: Revisiting Bad Memories and Making New Ones

Private Sean Calso of the 435 infantry division was fast asleep; he had always fallen asleep while traveling. Since he was a little kid, the hum and monotonous purr of the engine, the smooth gliding way the vehicle chased the strips on the highway had always made him fall into a gentle oblivion. His father always drove, mother in the side passenger and him curled up in his back seat. He still slept while traveling, even though the good days had passed. When his parents died in the E day invasion, they left their son with nothing, nothing but a pile of rubble and an antique gold necklace. The one found on his mother when they dug the bodies up. With nothing left he joined the Coalition of Gears. To fight and defend the last remnants of humanity and civilization left on the earth.

Sean stirred as they hit a bump. He was in a boarding car on a train. Yet again, memorized by the smooth ride to the city. The boarding car was packed with men of his division, yet that didn't stop him from nodding off. Sean stirred once again as they hit another bump, then was abruptly awaken by a series of bumps and being knocked around by he rest of his squad mates. Then as Sean was trying to awaken to his senses, he was thrown into the floor by the train screeching to a dramatic halt.

He was roughly stood up and was able to croak out a "Whass goin onn?"

"I don't know, bud, whatever it is, I don't think its going to be very pretty." Replied the COG who helped him stand, he was Sean's old childhood friend named Craig.

The car was dark, and Sean noticed the scared looks on some of the COG's faces, others gripped their lancers or shotguns nervously. There was shouting outside, then a rush of blinding light, as the car door was thrown open, the light made his face contort and his iris's ached. People rushed out of the car, there was more shouting and people pushed and shoved their ways out.

Once on the ground, Sean had noticed that it had rained. The ground was slippery and his heavy Government Issue boots sank into the muddy sections. There was rain collected on the leaves of the trees and the sweet smell of ozone lingered in the air. He only had a small amount of time to notice his surroundings before he was gripped on the arm by Craig.

"Sean, look at this, what the heck happened?!"

What Sean hadn't noticed was the crowd of people in front of the Train. As Sean got closer, he realized what they were looking at. It was a hole. This wasn't just a regular emergence hole, this was 50 feet across, and went down into an infinite black abyss.

The Major, who was in the front of the crowd, looked down the immense tunnel. Kicked a rock inside it, watched go down and turned to address the crowd.

"Well boy's suit up, it looks like we have a hell of a day ahead of us!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Hell- Get off at next exit

"What could have done this?" Was one of the thousands of questions that racked Private Sean's mind. He sighed, "Whatever it was is either lurking inside of the forest around us, or is inside the city." The Private looked up, the city was only a few miles away from their position, but help was going to have to wait a little bit longer. Without Ravens or vehicular help, they would have to march. It would take them a few hours hopefully they would get there without….delay. The city looked bleak and smoke was rising from some of the buildings. Sean hoped it wasn't overrun.

A barking order snapped him from his thoughts, it was from his platoons sergeant. "All right you girls, lets get in position. On the double!"

The private got in line with his squad mates and stood at the ready. He looked to his left, Craig was next to him. He gave Sean a wink and said "A little fresh air and exercise never hurt anybody now did it?"

"Yeah, especially when that exercise ends with you being eaten alive by locust." Sean thought

And so the 4 platoons that made up the 435 infantry division, each with about 10 people, started down the tracks. They kept close the tracks to prevent them from getting lost. They often found deep gouges in the earth and trees ripped up from the thing that crawled out of the hole. It was confirmed that a reaper was most likely the culprit, but how many, they couldn't tell, but it was for sure that it was at least more than 2. This unsettled the private. He had never heard of so many reapers in one place before. If they were still lurking in the forest, would they have a chance? Sean swept this question from his mind with confidence. Of coarse they would, there were at least forty marines here, some had the scars to tell that they had fought the beasts. He was safe where he was.

This confidence was shattered almost immediately, as a hail of bullets streaked out of the forest accompanied by roars that chilled the very bones of the private. Yet his instincts kicked in and quickly the marines ducked and ran to find cover. Sean ran to a boulder that outcropped near the tracks. He barely managed to squeeze in as it was being used by three other COGs. He was still vulnerable though from fire on the other side of the forest, but he tried to keep as low as possible, already the bullets had taken many victims.

Sean grabbed a grenade and spun it around until it gained momentum. He chose a spot in the forest where there was a good concentration of fire coming out and loosed it. The grenade exploded and to his luck, the explosion had claimed some victims. He fired rounds into the black forest, he was keeping a steady rate of fire, but then stopped as one of the COGs next to him fell down to the ground. The Private rolled him over, it was not a pretty sight, the private had taken two rounds to the head. He checked his pulse…nothing. Cursing, he took off his COG tags and stashed them in his sack. He was about to turn when he heard a gut wrenching scream and trees crash to the ground.

"Oh No" Muttered Calso as he knew what had came before he even turned his head.

When he looked up, he still couldn't believe this as true, but two reapers just entered the camp.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Beyond Belief

The two vicious beasts were standing over their fresh victims, three gears were on the ground torn to shreds and one was impaled by the beast's claws. One gave a blood curling shriek and they charged at the gears. Some managed to fire at it, others, like Sean stood dumbfounded as fear took a hold of their senses.

The Major barked orders at the men "Get down! Lay some fire on it! Damn it Gears! Wake up!"

But Sean just stood there, terrified, transfixed.

Then his worst fears came true, one of the reapers turned, he could see its thousand of beady eyes turn on him, size him up and charged.

The beast charged and Sean stood there, it wasn't till the beast unleashed its shrill cry that he snapped to his senses. The beast opened his huge jaws, about to pounce upon its prey, and Sean jumped. He did a barrel roll on the ground and got up.

"Ok, you want it? Here it is!" He said through clenched teeth and unleashed a clip into the beast's abdomen.

The monster shrieked as the bullets pieced the soft flesh. This only angered it and it stuck out with its needle like legs. Sean dodged and rolled out of the way. That was close, yet Calso grabbed another grenade off his belt and loosed it toward the beast. The beast knew what Sean had just thrown at it and it kicked the grenade away with one swipe of its huge leg.

This was not going to be easy. Sean yelled for some support, terrified. Five Gears rushed toward the scene, surrounded the animal and laid down fire. The Beast roared and lunged at a Gear, bit him in half and swallowed him. Sean gripped his last grenade, twirled the explosive and threw it at the distracted Reaper. To his surprise his, throw landed underneath the abdomen. It exploded and the Reaper recoiled in shock and screamed. The Gears were still steadfast in their duties and shot from behind cover.

The beast was still relentless and tried to get the men, but they were quick to move out of the way. The Reaper gave up on trying too kill the surrounding Gears, and focused on the unfortunate victim in front of it, Sean. It picked itself to its full height and pounced toward the Private. Sean, expecting the attack, dove to his right and hit his head on something metal. He looked up, it was a torcherpack that was strapped to the back of a COG. This pack emitted a napalm like flame that leached onto its victim, burning it alive until that last organic particle of its victim was wasted. The men who carried these packs had to stay at least 50 feet from any other COG or else the flame would indiscriminately choose a human life. This was a radical decision, but one that would have to be made.

The Private picked up, the pack. He screamed for the other Gears to take cover behind whatever possible.

He gripped the pack, the Reaper charged him, he tossed the pack at the creatures face. It flew threw the air with a sluggish speed. He picked up his lancer and aimed. The pack was feet away from the beast. A single bullet flew threw the air….made contact with the packs left tank. The pack burst into flames and hungrily engulfed the Reaper's face. With dying shrieks, the creature writhed and cringed. Then fell on the ground without a sound, the substance ate away its vocal cords.

Sean looked out from his hiding spot, saw the half mutilated creature on the ground. Sean stood, his legs gave out and he sagged and fell on the ground with a sigh. His whole body was shaking. He was exhausted. One thing disturbed him. It was quiet, dead quiet. He guessed that the other reaper had been dealt with. Then he finally heard the hard patting of boots on wet ground. The other COGs surrounded him.

One smiled, it was his platoon's sergeant, Sergeant Evans. He laughed "Well son, good job."

He muttered out a quiet "Thanks…."

He didn't know what happened to him next, a soft dark oblivion covered him, sleep.


End file.
